Georgia Tech Safety Initiatives

It is awful that students have to deal with this crap.  Normally you send your child off to school, you think you have taught him to be self reliant and careful in strange places.  The problem is that these young adults are more friendly and less careful with strangers than fearful folks like me.  This gets them in to places they wish they had never gone. 

When I was in school, two young men, friends from another fraternity, were walking home, down Techwood from the Omni (it used to be a straight shot).  They were stopped by a robber, made to strip, one ordered to sodomize the other.  I do not know to what extent that went, but when one was behind the other, the robber put the gun to the backmost anus an pulled the trigger.  Killing one, severely injuring the other.

There is no arguing with a devastating weapon.

Here we have the school that has an ever increasing student population and facility footprint adjacent to at least one impoverished neighborhood, arguable two.

These problems are not hard to believe.

Dear Georgia Tech Parent:

As the semester draws to an end, I wanted to take the opportunity to remind our parents of all that we are doing to ensure a safe campus for your sons and daughters. As a parent, I can assure you that your student’s safety and security is our top priority and we are taking great measures to keep our community as safe as possible.

Due to recent incidents on and around campus, the Georgia Tech Police Department (GTPD) initiated enhanced joint patrols with the Atlanta Police Department (APD) around our campus. In addition, the APD has tripled the number of officers in the surrounding area during the late and early morning hours. Each of these patrols includes both uniformed and plain clothes officers.

The Institute also launched a series of safety initiatives including an extensive education and communications campaign “See Something? Say Something!” intended to keep students both aware and vigilant. In addition, there has been hands-on involvement by executive leadership including police ride-a-longs by President Peterson and other administrators, as well as participation in the annual student-led safety walk which helped identify safety concerns and issues.

In response to safety concerns for our transient student population, the Institute has invested in state-of the-art technology known as Guardian, a safety feature provided free-of-charge to the campus community that transforms mobile phones into personal safety devices upon activation by the student. Participants can voluntarily opt-in and share information to expedite police response. Please visit the Guardian website for more information. The system is expected to launch in early 2012. Additional details will be forthcoming.    

To address transportation concerns, the Institute implemented a new automated Stingerette (nighttime transportation van) system that enables students to make pick-up requests from their laptops or smartphones. The Institute also added a new Tech Trolley route to provide transportation from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. If a student is not able to utilize Georgia Tech transportation, he/she may call the Georgia Tech Police Dispatch for an evening police escort at 404-894-2501. 

While we have seen positive results from our aggressive initiatives, we realize that any crime is one crime too many.

Ultimately, crime prevention is about people, not statistics, and we will continue to take the steps necessary to improve safety for your student. We ask parents to help us reinforce these safety precautions with their student and to remind him/her to travel with others when on campus late at night. Students are encouraged to use the Stingerette (stingerette.com or 404-385-7433) or contact GTPD (404-894-2501) to get a safe ride home. For a complete listing of campus safety initiatives, visit the Parents Program Campus Safety webpage.

GTPD depends on the entire campus community to be an active participant in maintaining a safe campus environment. The ongoing campaign, "See Something, Say Something," reminds the campus community to report any concerns to the GTPD at 404-894-2500 as quickly as possible. Together, we can create and maintain a safe campus community for everyone.

I wish you and your family a very safe and happy holiday season,

William D. Schafer, Ph.D.

Vice President for Student Affairs